My Fair Maiden
by The Pakora Princess
Summary: Spence Westmore is miserable, even if his life looks perfect. A steady acting career, a hot Hollywood wife whose star is on the rise, an adorable baby boy and a luxurious home in the most coveted neighbourhood in L.A. But then his mundane life changes when he hires a new house maid, Rosie Falta. Before he knows it, he has fallen in love with his maid. Please read and review!
1. First Sight

**_I recently began watching Devious Maids and I was quickly addicted. One of my absolute favourite couples on the show is Mr. Spence and Rosie, so I knew I had put them on paper! On the TV show we mostly see events through maid's point of view, but I would definitely like to see things from Mr. Spence's eyes some more, not only because he has such lovely eyes, but because of he can see the beauty in Rosie's soul. _**

* * *

My Fair Maiden

Written by: The Pakora Princess

* * *

Chapter 1 – First Sight

* * *

The corners of Spence Westmore's eyes crinkled with amusement after hearing the response of the latest candidate for housekeeper, Rosie Falta. Her understanding of English idioms from what he could tell was pretty limited.

"No Rosie, when I said I was all ears, I meant that you had my undivided attention," Spence explained with a chuckle. He was sure that she was accustomed to having just about anyone's undivided attention whenever she walked into a room, he thought to himself. He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he found her to be extremely beautiful.

She had a sweet heart-shaped face, framed by unruly tendrils of dark chestnut brown hair that refused to remain in its French braid. Her warm coffee coloured eyes were fringed with long curly lashes and her skin was smooth and was the same shade of caramel. Spence could tell that she had an incredible body, even though the outfit she picked out for their interview did its best to cover her curves up. He was actually surprised with himself at how physically attracted he was to her.

"Please tell me about your previous experiences as a housekeeper." Spence continued the interview nonchalantly, leaning back in the Vanguard recliner as he flipped through her resume.

With a curt nod she started off listing off her duties with her previous employers, as she nervously played with a wayward wisp of her hair. Spence listened intently to her as he skimmed over her references, which were overwhelmingly glowing. It appeared that all her previous employers loved her work ethic, sunny disposition and cooking abilities.

He was very familiar with her last employer, Ida Myers. Ida was tough old bird, who was the main casting director for his soap opera, _Love Affairs. _She was retiring and moving to Miami with her new girlfriend and couldn't convince Rosie to come along with them. Ida knew that Westmores were having trouble with keeping a housekeeper and suggested that Rosie would be perfect fit for their new family. She praised Rosie for her warm and easy going nature and her special ability to pinpoint the goodness in even the most horrible of people.

"Even Peri," Ida had muttered loudly under her breath. Spence politely pretended that he didn't hear the pointed remark against his wife as he took down Rosie's cell phone number from Ida. He was just happy to get solid recommendation for a new housekeeper.

Holding onto a housekeeper was becoming a challenge for Westmores. Peri's ego had grown considerably larger after she appeared in three movies and she was becoming a difficult person to be around. Past maids could not keep up with her abuse along with their young son's needs and Spence was almost at the end of his rope. He desperately needed someone to bring order to his household.

"Excuse me? I'm not sure that I heard you correctly," Spence coughed out. "Did you just say that one of your duties was to give Ida Myers bikini waxes?"

Rosie looked down into her lap and nodded timidly.

"Yes Mr. Spence, I did say that." Rosie confirmed. "Ms. Ida did not feel comfortable going to the spa anymore and I was just doing my job."

"Well, no one can say that you aren't dedicated to your job." Spence stated with a smile. "You sound like a wonderful housekeeper."

"Thank you Mr. Spence," Rosie replied, easily returning his smile.

"Well your credentials are exceedingly good, no one can fault you on housekeeping skills," Spence asserted with another smile. "How do you feel about taking care of children? We were looking for the housekeeper to take on nanny duties as well."

"I love children, I would be happy to take care of all your kids for you, Mr. Spence," Rosie answered enthusiastically.

Spence laughed at her at her wording and at her eagerness, finding it completely charming.

"There is only the one you would have to take care of. We have only one son, Tucker. He's three months old and already quite a handful," Spence clarified after he settled down from his laughter.

"May I see him?" Rosie asked, pointing to the small portrait that sat on the side table next to his recliner. Spence nodded, handing over the picture of Tucker to Rosie.

"Dios mio, he is such a handsome boy," Rosie beamed, lovingly holding the portrait of Tucker in her hands. "He will break all the ladies hearts when he grows up!"

Her look of bright admiration quickly turned to longing and then suddenly it turned into sadness and Spence could see tears gleaming in her big brown eyes.

"Rosie, are you okay?" Spence asked in a gentle voice.

She looked up and quickly brushed her tears away with the back of her hand.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Spence, it's just seeing your son at that age reminded me of my own Miguel when he just a little baby," Rosie explained, the blush in her cheeks deepening. She didn't intend to cry openly at her first promising interview.

"We would have no problem with your bringing your son with you. We definitely have the space." Spence offered easily.

"That's really generous of you Mr. Spence but my Miguel is back in Guadalajara with my mother." Rosie answered. "I am trying to earn enough money to bring him over to America."

"What about Miguel's father? Are you both working to bring him over?" Spence asked, since he couldn't curb his curiosity with this particular applicant.

"My husband Ernesto was killed by the drug cartels back home. After he died I knew that I needed to leave and make a new life for me and Miguel," she responded quickly, hoping that she could avoid this wave of sadness coming over her once more. She provided a watery smile for his benefit.

"I'm really sorry hear that, Rosie," Spence sympathized, his admiration for this incredible woman growing. She had led a rough life but she still managed to plaster a bright smile on her face. "It couldn't have been easy to leave all you know and love behind to make a new life."

"That's true Mr. Spence, it's why I couldn't go to Miami with Ms. Ida. I've already put down some roots here and made some truly good friends," she acceded with a nod. "It would be so hard to start all over again, that's why I really need this job."

She pleadingly looked up with her big brown eyes and Spence held onto her gaze longer than what was appropriate. There was something about the energy between them that subtly changed. Rosie coughed, breaking the spell that was between them.

"Well there's only one more question that I have for you. When can you start? The job is yours," Spence finally decided as he held out his hand for a handshake. He had heard enough, she was certainly the most qualified for the tasks at hand and she was completely delightful. He was confident that she was the perfect woman...for the job.

"Thank you Mr. Spence! You won't be disappointed!" Rosie exclaimed, clasping his hand. She didn't know why but she felt a jolt of electricity when their fingers touched. She ignored the sensation and smiled up at him as she released his hand.

"Rosie, I'm sure we won't" Spence agreed.


	2. Dom Perignon

Chapter 2 – Dom Perignon

* * *

**I'm sorry, rehearsals are running late and I won't be able to make it to dinner :(**

Spence slammed his cell phone on the table top after he read Peri's text message, feeling foolish that he waited so long for her arrival. She had kept promising throughout the day that she would make it for their anniversary dinner and that she would make all the necessary excuses to leave work at a decent time. But he should have known better, their marriage wasn't high on her list of priorities. Her career was quickly eclipsing everything else in their lives.

"Mr. Spence, is everything okay?" Rosie inquired from the kitchen as she put the dried dishes away. She had heard the dishes clatter loudly from Spence slamming the table.

"Dinner is cancelled," Spence explained with a grimace.

"Oh no, Mr. Spence! But it's your anniversary dinner!" Rosie cried out emphatically as if it were her own anniversary dinner that was called off. That's how bad she felt for Mr. Spence.

"Peri couldn't get away from her rehearsals," Spence said with a sneer. "They are more important than little things like anniversary dinners."

"I'm so sorry Mr. Spence, but I'm sure she did everything she could to be here on time," Rosie consoled. "She's probably wishes she was sitting right next to you right now, enjoying all this good food with you."

"How can you be so sure of that?" Spence asked with a derisive smirk.

"Only a stupid lady wouldn't want to have a romantic dinner with you, Mr. Spence," Rosie answered simply. "And Ms. Peri is very smart."

With anyone else, Spence would roll his eyes and scoff at their reassurance. However, with Rosie it was entirely different case. She genuinely believed the best in everyone and it was hard to remain upset in her presence.

"Maybe you're right," Spence easily conceded to Rosie's suggestion. "How about you help me clear the dishes and pack up dinner? I'm not very hungry anymore."

"Okay, Mr. Spence," Rosie accepted, approaching the table. "It's too bad about your special dinner. All this food you ordered smells so wonderful."

Spence had gone to trouble of getting Wolfgang Puck to cook their favourite entrees from his exclusive five diamond restaurant. It was hard to ignore the tantalizing scent of perfectly grilled filet mignon and the piping hot gravy splashed over the whipped heirloom potatoes. Spence could then hear the unmistakable sound of Rosie's stomach grumbling loudly. Spence had to fight the urge to laugh out loud.

"You know what, Rosie? Just because Peri couldn't make it tonight that doesn't mean we should let this fancy dinner go to waste. Why don't you take a seat and join me?" Spence offered, waving her over to empty seat across from him. "At least this way, one of us can celebrate our anniversary."

"No, Mr. Spence! It wouldn't be right for me to eat this dinner with you!" Rosie objected, although he could see that sparkle of interest in her eyes.

"Well, if you don't join me all this good food will go to waste because there's no way Peri will eat any of this stuff cold or reheated," Spence contended with a convincing smile.

"I don't know Mr. Spence, I really shouldn't," Rosie still baulked at the idea of sitting down to dinner with him against this romantic backdrop.

A small intimate dinner table had been set up in front of their French doors with clear view of the pool. There was a multitude of little lanterns floating on the water's glassy surface. At the center of the table sat a dimly lit antique candelabra surrounded with an impressive array red and pink roses, with the excess rose petals strewn about the table. It would be wrong to have dinner with a married man in such a setting and it was even worse that the married man was her current employer.

"Come on, Rosie. Do you honestly want all this good food to go waste? Think about all the starving children in the world," Spence cajoled further, appealing to her Catholic guilt. He could feel her wavering as she held his gaze.

"When you put it like that Mr. Spence..." she started but finally conceded by sitting in the empty chair.

"Excellent, now I have some good company to enjoy with this food," Spence said victoriously as he draped a deep red linen napkin across his lap. Rosie followed his lead and delicately stabbed her fork into the enticing steak.

"Dios Mio! This steak is like butter in my mouth. And the potatoes, they taste like clouds!" Rosie exclaimed after a few mouthfuls. Spence chuckled with amusement with her reaction to the meal.

"If you like that, then you have to try this," Spence responded with an amused smile. He plucked a bottle of Dom Perignon from the ice bucket and it popped it open, causing Rosie to momentarily hop from her chair. He then poured the bubbly liquid into two crystal flutes and handed her a filled glass.

"Cheers," Spence murmured, clinking his glass with hers before taking a swig.

She took a tentative sip and then she bit down on her lower lip from the sheer pleasure. It tasted so good and the little bursting bubbles went straight to her head. A pleased smile played on Spence's lips as he watched her enjoy her food and drink.

"It's so good, is that champagne?" Rosie asked, lifting the flute to her lips once more.

"It's Dom Perignon, one of best champagnes on the planet." Spence replied, the contentment in his eyes dying away into a hardened glare. "I got this bottle specifically for Peri. It's her favourite and where she got the inspiration for her current name."

"Ms. Peri's name isn't Ms. Peri?" Rosie asked with surprised.

Spence took a large gulp from his glass and raised his eyebrows indifferently, not commenting any further.

"Mr. Spence! What is Ms. Peri's real name?" Rosie pressed, dying of curiosity.

He knew he shouldn't be sharing his wife's secrets with the help but after guzzling down the entire contents of his glass, he was beginning not to care. Picking up the champagne bottle, he topped up Rosie's glass and then his own.

"You have to swear on this glass of champagne that you will never tell a soul what I tell you tonight," Spence demanded with a lopsided grin.

"I even swear on Our Lady of Guadalupe," Rosie agreed, placing her right hand over her heart.

"When I first met Peri, she was introduced to me as Tallulah Cornfoot…" Spence revealed and Rosie's mouth gaped open. Then Spence and Rosie laughed heartily at the difference between the two names. The glamorous Peri Westmore was actually Tallulah Cornfoot?

"I think this champagne is making me laugh harder than I want," Rosie stated after she sobered up, dabbing her napkin at the corners of her eyes. "I actually think Tallulah is a very pretty name."

"You're right, Rosie," Spence concurred with a subdued tone. "I used to think so too."

"Oh Mr. Spence, tell me about the first time you met Ms. Tallulah," Rosie questioned, hunching forward in her chair.

"The first time I met Ms. Tallulah, hmm?" Spence thought aloud as he scratched his chin. "It was a couple years ago before she got into the movies. She was introduced to me by my agent at a wrap party. She had a gig on a pilot TV show that was filming at the same studio as _Love Affairs_."

"Is that when you and Ms. Peri first fell in love?" Rosie asked, reverting to calling her by the current name.

"Not exactly, but I was intrigued," Spence said with a chuckle. "She was unlike any actress I had come across in my illustrious soap opera career."

"She was?"

"She's nothing like the woman you know now. She loved to go to the L.A. Dodgers games, she would eat several hot dogs in one sitting and she even drank beer straight from the bottle. Most actresses I've came across back then were so obsessed with their looks, fashion designers, and getting invited to all the right parties. So, Peri was a breath of fresh air and what can I say, I was enchanted." Spence recalled, smiling slightly at the memory.

"What a wonderful story," Rosie exclaimed and this time Spence couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.

It would have been a wonderful story too… If only that hopeful starry-eyed girl that he married hadn't transformed so drastically. Spence began to reminisce about Tallulah Cornfoot.

After a couple of dates, Spence was smitten. He enjoyed her company, liked her dry sense of humour and admired her ambition to become a successful actress, while maintaining her down-to-earth attitude. However, that pilot TV show wasn't picked up and she wasn't getting any call backs from her past auditions.

Even after all those setbacks, she still remained to be the charming and lovable girlfriend, which impressed him even more. He felt he would never meet another girl like that ever again and that's when he decided that he should propose. He knew they hadn't dated for very long but as long as they could laugh at their foibles together like they were doing now, he felt confident that their relationship could go the distance.

After more failed auditions, her agent suggested that Tallulah should change her name to something more Hollywood worthy. At dinner that night the both of them had a good time coming up with fake names for her acting career. They tried all the combinations, picking her cat's name with the address of her first street, new palindromes and nicknames.

"Oh, it's so hard coming up with a trendy name these days and I'm running out of ideas! Maybe I should just pick extravagant junk like everyone else." Tallulah complained, when picking out a new name was no longer fun. "What do you think about the name Mercedes Rolex?"

"Well, what about Westmore? That's a pretty established name in Hollywood," Spence suggested offhandedly.

"What do you mean, Spence?" Tallulah asked with a giggle, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Tallulah, I don't really care what you change your first name to. You could choose Mercedes, Rolex, Dom Perignon for all I care…but would you do me the honour of changing your last name to Westmore by becoming my wife?" Spence proposed, pulling out ring box from his pocket.

"Yes! Yes of course!" Tallulah shrieked with excitement, running over to him and kissing him fully on the mouth. As a personal joke between the two of them, she took on the name Peri from the Dom Perignon in his proposal.

Spence sighed loudly when he thought about that memory.

"Oh Rosie, it's not the wonderful story that you think it is," Spence huffed as he leaned back in his seat. "As soon as Peri got her first taste of success, she was never the same again. She only turned into one of those vapid Hollywood actresses I already knew too well."

"It's not too late. It can still be a wonderful story, Mr. Spence. Maybe all you need to do is remind her of the person that she used to be," Rosie replied, providing him with a supportive nod. "Instead of having a fancy dinner, why don't you take her one of those L.A. Badgers games to celebrate your anniversary?"

"You mean the Dodgers…" Spence slurred.

"Yes, the Badgers…"

Spence kept a wry grin on his lips as he considered Rosie's suggestion. Should he take another stab at rekindling the flame with his wife or…

Should he give into his darker desire and attempt to undress Rosie where she sat?

The candlelight set alight all the gorgeous curves of her face and brought fire to her dark intense eyes. However, she seemed oblivious to how her mere presence affected him.

When he first met her, he knew he was physically attracted to her but he thought nothing of it. He thought that the physical attraction would fade with time, as it would with any other temptation. Yet, the more time he spent with her and the more he got to know her, her desirability only intensified in his eyes.

She was wonderful with Tucker, his young son took to her like a duckling to water. It warmed his heart to watch the two of them together, whether she was feeding him, reading him a story in Spanish or humming him a lullaby as she rocked him to sleep.

Also, she was able to exhibit the utmost patience with Peri, even when Peri was on one of her many terrible tirades. He had witnessed on many occasions Rosie listening patiently to his wife nit-pick over the smallest details and afterwards Rosie would just continue with her work as if nothing happened.

One particular time, Rosie caught him staring at her open mouthed with amazement after Peri had finished viciously complaining about the dry cleaning. Peri then stormed off to Rodeo Drive to find a new dress for the upcoming red carpet gala.

Spence whistled and shook his head in incredulity at Rosie's ability to remain calm. He began apologizing for Peri's behaviour, but she looked directly at him and shrugged it off.

"Mr. Spence, I used to be on the run from the drug cartels back home. So, Ms. Peri's yelling cannot scare me," she said with a laugh.

It was at that precise moment that he realized that he was actually falling for her and falling hard. Did he dare take this moment of solitude between them to find out if the feelings were mutual?

"Rosie, I-" Spence began but was then interrupted with loud wail from Tucker's nursery.

"Mr. Spence, I have to check on Tucker!" Rosie cried out, hopping up from her seat and rushing off to his son's side.

"Maybe, it was for the best," Spence uttered to his self. Tucker cries reminded him of why he miserably remained by Peri's side. His kid deserved to have the happy childhood that Spence's parents robbed from him. There was no way that he would allow Tucker to experience the miseries of a broken home. He would have to continue to ignore these feelings that were developing for Rosie.

"Here's to us, my love," Spence toasted, raising his glass of Dom Perignon to the empty chair across from him. "Another year of love, laughter and happiness…"

Then Spence promptly began to laugh at his depressing toast.


End file.
